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1. Objective
? To examine accounting degree students’ academic performance for the first year in Irish University with the different range of backgrounds.
? To identify factors that correlated with the academic performance of the accounting program in the first year at an Irish University.
2. Motivation
? To identify factors that will give potential impact on the students’ academic success performance.
? The changes in the role and activities of professional accountants have resulted from the development in the Irish business environment related to regulation, technology, globalization and other things.
? Increasing in the demand’s for accounting profession graduates and the number of student in Irish.
? To investigate whether student who are selecting accounting program are really suited to it and able to success in their studies and future careers or not.
3. Hypothesis
? Hypothesis 1. Prior academic achievement is not significantly connected with first year academic performance.
? Hypothesis 2. Prior knowledge of accounting is not significantly connected with first year academic performance.
? Hypothesis 3. Gender is not significantly connected with first year academic performance.
? Hypothesis 4. Preparedness, expectations and motives for higher education are not significantly connected with first year academic performance.
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4. Research methodology
? The study was conducted by first year student of B.A. in Accounting and Finance (BAAF).
? Method of questionnaire is used to gather the data for this study.
? The questionnaire consists of 60 question using five-point Likert scale.
? The questionnaire is distributes to 135 students to complete it during their induction meeting.
? Total students that complete the questionnaire are 129 students.
? It is to study students’ motives, preparedness and expectation for higher education.
? The questionnaire also highlighted the detail of the students’ prior academic achievement, prior knowledge of accounting and gender.
5. Research finding
? Assumption from hypothesis 1 which is prior academic achievement is not associated with first year academic performance is rejected. The study prove that the prior academic achievement consist of positive associate with overall first year performance, performance in financial accounting and also in management accounting. It is most important variable because it got serious implication on admission of the students to university at least for accounting program. Not perform in academic will cause them to require other support to enter university in able to success such as peer monitoring.
? Prior knowledge of accounting from hypothesis 2 is not significantly associated with first academic performance is only partially supported. The study shows that having a knowledge in accounting before pursue this field is significantly positive with the student overall performance but negative in performance of financial accounting and management accounting. It is show that even though the students are not having prior knowledge before entering the accounting program they also can do well in accounting modules. These finding from the hypothesis also suggest that the students that have studied accounting also need to be include in first year accounting modules.
? Gender is not significantly associated with first year academic performance which is from hypothesis 3 is fully supported. The study shows that gender is not associates with the performance of the student whether overall, in financial accounting or in management accounting. This is because nowadays gender difference is no longer the issues in accounting.
? Hypothesis 4 is highlighted the associations among motives, expectations and preparedness for higher education with first year academic performance. Students motives to pursue in accounting course because they belief they have the skill and abilities that are suitable for accounting. It is gives a highly significant associates between those variable and the performance of the students. The students should be encouraged to evaluate their weaknesses and strength in order to identify their ability and skill in accounting program. The students also belief that accounting program will give them a good job and it is provided significant associations with performance financial accounting and highly associates with management accounting’s performance. For preparedness variable which is students’ background variable and students’ view that university give a new challenge resulted in negative associations with academic performance. Which means those variables are not affected the performance of the students.
6. Conclusion
? As a conclusion, having knowledge and academic achievement in accounting before pursue in this field and having a skill and ability that can be utilised in this field is important for the overall performance of the students.
? The finding of the study shows that the reasons students had poorer academic performance because of they have lower academic ability, no prior accounting knowledge, lacks of confidence and had no clear goal.
? This finding from the study also may help in identifying the students that are having possibilities to face a failure in academic.